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Determining Importance in Text:

Some Key Ideas

  1. WORD LEVEL

An author's ideas begin at the word level.

CONTENTIVES – words that carry the meaning

FUNCTORS – words that connect

2.SENTENCE LEVEL

Key sentences carry the meaning for a passage or section.

Key sentences begin or end passage.

Key sentences are set off by bold print.

Key sentences refer to a table or graph.

3.TEXT LEVEL

Text has key ideas, concepts, and themes that the reader understands after reading the passage.

To find key ideas, the reader may re-read the passage.

To find key ideas, the reader may discuss or write about the passage.

from Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann

Heinemann Books – 1997 – Page 94

Questions We Ask

We ask Questions: / Before Reading / During Reading / After Reading
with answers in the text.
with answers I must find by thinking about the book and my own experience.
with no certain answers.
to clarify meaning.
about what's coming next in the book.
about the author's intent.
about the author's style.
about the author's format.

from Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann

Heinemann Books – 1997 – Page 113

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Mosaics of Thought Strategies Overview

Strategy / Fiction / Nonfiction
Questioning / Monitor comprehension
Identify the degree to which one understands
Identify confusing ideas, themes, or surface elements
Ask 5 Ws + H
Focus and concentrate (active reading) / Additional clues in nonfiction:
Use bold faced headings to form questions
Focus on introductory ¶s
Focus on concluding ¶s
Record answers to your questions
Use Patterns of Organization to focus questions
Inferring / Draw conclusions
Support conclusions from text
Draw inferences from text
Make predictions
Make critical and/or analytical judgments
Interpret / Nonfiction generally has a narrow range of interpretation, but you make the same sorts of inferences as you do when you read fiction.
Making Connections / Access prior knowledge
Connect new text to old text
Connect text to world / Create images (sensory and emotional)
Develop themes
Compare and contrast
Determining Importance / SCHEMA – Text Structure – Genre
PlotThemeSequence of Events
CharactersToneResolution
SettingConflict / SCHEMA – Text Structure – Genre
Main Idea/ Details
Informative PatternsC/C, C/E, Top, Chron
Persuasive PatternsP/S
Synthesizing / SUMMARYSYNTHESIS
Include all key points Summary + Opinion+ Inference
Retell what you have read+ Reaction+ Analysis
+ Interpretation
Fix-Up Strategies / Word Level:
Decode new words
Analyze words
Attend to context clues
Sentence Level:
Look at syntactic arrangement of words
Read aloud to check
Use language conventions (ex. periods, commas, quotation marks, etc.)
Re-read, read ahead / Schema Level:
Access prior knowledge
Create visual images
Use imagination
Relate to text pattern and format knowledge
Pragmatic Level:
Understand what they don't understand
Decide what is most important
Work with another person

Most of these strategies can be used before, during, and after reading.

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